Austin Dragon Boat Festival

Texas is going to worlds.

The Lone Star Dragons are headed to Hualien, Taiwan, to represent Texas at the 15th IDBF Club Crew World Championships, racing on Liyu Lake September 1 through 6 against the best club crews in the world.

Before they left, we had the honor of sending them off at the Austin Dragon Boat Festival ceremony, joined by ADBF founder Amy Wong Mok, Mayor Pro Tem Chito Vela, and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Houston.

Dragon boat racing is a tradition more than 2,000 years old, and every spring it comes alive on Lady Bird Lake at the Austin Dragon Boat Festival. This week, a Texas crew carries it to the world stage.

Paddles up, Lone Star Dragons Team. Race hard, race proud. Texas is with you.

Good luck from all of us at The Lunar Foundation and the Austin Dragon Boat Festival.

The Austin Coolers Dragon Boat Team are launching their first-ever youth team this summer, with free weekly Saturday morning practices for middle and high schoolers. Parents can paddle alongside their kids, too.

🛶 Kickoff: June 20 at 8:30 AM on Lady Bird Lake

We’d love to see youth teams racing at next year’s Austin Dragon Boat Festival.

Sign up at: https://austincoolers.com/youth-team/

ADBF 2026 went beyond race day. 🐉

Through the Fold for Good volunteer event, our community handcrafted 600+ zongzi (traditional Chinese rice dumplings) that sold at the festival and raised $889 for the Central Texas Food Bank CTFB is matching that gift into 3,000 meals for children in need. ❤️

We also partnered with CapMetro to make the festival accessible by rail, with 104 digital 1-day passes redeemed by attendees riding public transit to Festival Beach.

And Austin was paying attention. With the help of Juice Consulting, ADBF 2026 earned 32 pieces of media coverage, including KXAN Austin, FOX 7 Austin, CultureMap Austin, Hoodline, Community Impact, Austin Chronicle, Do512, Modern Luxury, Tribeza, MSN, Yahoo News, Patch, Spectrum News, Round the Rock, and more.

This is what community-rooted programming looks like: AANHPI artists paid, neighbors fed, transit supported, and a 26-year-old festival reaching new audiences across the city.

Thank you for showing up. 🌊

Read the full event recap here: https://www.atxdragonboat.com/adbf-2026-recap/

ADBF 2026 by the numbers 📊🐉

The 26th Annual Austin Dragon Boat Festival made history this April, and the receipts are in. Swipe through to see what your community built together.

🐲~650 athletes across 26 dragon boat teams, the most in ADBF history
🐲3,000 attendees on the ground at Festival Beach
🐲163 AANHPI artists and culinary entrepreneurs featured and paid
🐲62,000+ social media views with zero paid advertising
🐲20,000 Google search impressions
🐲 8+ media placements across Austin's major outlets.

To every artist, performer, food vendor, paddler, volunteer, and partner who showed up: this is what you helped create. Your work reached more eyes, more screens, and more new audiences than ever before in the festival's 26-year history.

Full recap on our website: https://www.atxdragonboat.com/adbf-2026-recap/

In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we took our mobile branch to the Austin Dragon Boat Festival at Festival Beach on Lady Bird Lake! 🐉

The festival celebrates the ancient sport of dragon boating while showcasing Austin’s vibrant AAPI community through music, food, and dance.

We’re proud to honor the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, this month and always.

Photo credit: Austin Dragon Boat Festival

Thank you DUC PINK!! 💗